This is what starting out looks like.

It’s not pretty. It’s painful. It hurts. It might not get you to the finish. Ready?

Starting out isn’t easy. In fact, if it something you care about (or worse: just something you have to do), it’s going to be all the more painful. Can you envision that guy winning the Olympic sprint, hands in the air, out of breath, but a huge smile of pride on his face? He had to start too.

You can start without finishing, but you can’t finish without starting.

WARNING: the images in this post may not be suitable for people scared of starting.

It doesn’t matter what it is that you’re starting:

Moving houses

Writing a novel

Losing weight

Going gluten free

Changing careers

It’s all relative. Losing weight might be easy for you, but a dreaded nightmare for me. I can write a novel in a month, but you can’t get past the blank page staring back at you. It doesn’t matter how difficult someone else thinks it is, it only matters how much you want it–and what you’re willing to get there.

(Here comes the graphic photo. Shield your eyes.)

This is what starting out looks like. [Box #1 of countless.]

That was was in a box in my cellar for the past, oh, I don’t know, 8 years? QuickBooks 2001 CDs. Really?

If you do something on a regular basis, there is no “big, scary moment.” It’s all just another step in the process.

Had I been cleaning out the cellar (or, ahem, anywhere else in the house) on any kind of regular basis, then this big purge wouldn’t have been so, well, big. It also wouldn’t have been a purge. It would have been an update, a refresh, maybe a few things.

Everything follows this same law of physics. Small things are small. Big things are big. Do many small things and they can become big things. Do many small things and you might be able to avoid the big things completely.